RE: How to easily defeat any argument for God
August 8, 2019 at 12:37 pm
(This post was last modified: August 8, 2019 at 12:40 pm by Acrobat.)
(August 8, 2019 at 12:07 pm)Alan V Wrote: If you are talking about how religions have mythologized human morality here, then I agree that such assessments that morality is "out there" are illusory.
What I consider objective is our human nature, including the benefits or harms which comes from moral principles or their violation. On such a basis we have evolved our moral understanding, which is why we have drifted away from religious over-simplifications -- however much they contributed to our earlier thought on morality.
Who is this we that have drifted away from religious views of morality, the illusory out there you indicated? Some handful of non-religious people?
Most people are religious, and have been so for several thousands years, and if there's one area in which religious views are quite prevalent it in our moral thinking and beliefs. So it's little beyond hubristic to think we've shaken these assumptions off with ease relatively recently. In fact we have atheists on this forum who believe in morality out there, like Vulcan's beliefs in a platonic good.
Also your suggestion that the view of morality as out there, as a product of religion, gives too much credit to religion, it's putting the cart before the horse. Religions may attempt to articulate and capture the perception of morality out there, but it's not the source of such perceptions.
If you take a group of very young school students, and ask them if the teachers says it's okay to eat food in class, would it be okay to eat food in class? They'd say yes. If you ask them if the teacher says it okay to hit your classmates, would that be okay. They would say no it's wouldn't be. You can replace this with society, and it would be the same answer. The perception is of a "morality out there". It's on the basis of such beliefs that appear to us almost intuitively, that religions build their own moral views on. But the underlying perception here is far deeper and older than any religion.
(August 8, 2019 at 12:16 pm)Gae Bolga Wrote: Is your biology only capable of leading you to false facts?
No